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•1JV ADDRESS 



DELIVERED BEFORE THE 



ALUMNI AND THE SENIOR CLASS, 



OP THE 

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA : 

■ 

IN GEEARD HALL: 

ON TEE DAY PRECEDING THE 

Iff XUffE, 1§38. 

UNDER THE APPOINTMENT OF THE 

By CHARLES ^MANLY, Esquire. 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF SAID SOCIETY. 



Co RALEIGH, N. C 

Printed by T. Loring, at the Office of the North Carolina Standard. 



1838. 



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•SJV .1M>BRESS 

DELIVERED BEFORE THE 

ALUMNI AND THE SENIOR CLASS, 

OF THE 

UNIVERSITY OF NORTH CAROLINA : 

IN aSEARD HALL: 

ON THE DAV PRECEDING THE 

Ii¥ JUffE, 1S3§. 

UNDER THE APPOINTMENT OF THE 

2£>22&2S>21^^S2<8 8 <£> « 22 SS JP « . 



By CHARLES MANLY, Esquire, 



PUBLISHED BY ORDER OF SAID SOCIETY. 



4>~~, 



VO RALEIGH, N. C. 

Printed by T. Loring, at the Office of the North Carolina Standard. 

1838. 







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AS) 



University of North Carolina. 
Dear Sir: 

An agreement has been lately entered into by the two 
Societies, for the purpose of electing a member annually, and al- 
ternately from each body, to deliver an address before the Senior 
Class and the Alumni of the University, on Wednesday after- 
noon preceding Commencement. As president of the Dialectic 
Society, I have the pleasure to inform you that you have been 
chosen to deliver the address, alluded to above. This being a 
new, and, we think, an important addition to the exercises of the 
Commencement, we feel very anxious that it should succeed. — 
Permit me, therefore, individually and in behalf of the Society, 
to beg that you will give it the sanction of your name, and re- 
commend it, by your acceptance, to those who may be hereafter 
selected ; for we feel assured that the Society could not have se- 
lected an individual, more able to give to the exercise dignity and 
importance, and place it on a level with the oration delivered be- 
fore the two Societies, on Wednesday morning. 

You will please to let me hear from you as soon as you can 
with convenience. 

I am, sir, your ob't servant, 

CHARLES J. CRADDOCK. 
To Charles Manly, Esq. 



Chapel Hill, 28lh June, 1S38. 
Dear Sir : 

We tender to you the thanks of the Dialectic Society, for 
the excellent address delivered by you on the 27th inst., to the 
Senior Class and Alumni of the University, and respectfully re- 
quest of you a copy for publication. 

Yours, with the highest respect, 

JOHN N. BARKSDALE, 
P. E. BRADLEY, 
W. F. BROWN. 
To Charles Manly, Esq'r. 



Raleigh, 1st July, 183S. 
Young Gentlemen: 

I yield my assent to the publication of the desultory ad- 
dress delivered by me. during the last Commencement exercises 
— not from a consciousness of its possessing any intrinsic merit, 
or of its deserving a place in your archives— but in obedience to 
custom, and from a desire to gratify the wishes of the Society 
you represent, whose request you have so politely communicated. 
With sentiments of the highest 

respect, I am, gentlemen, 

Your ob't serv't, 

CHAS. MANLY. 
To Messrs. J. N. Barkssdale, ) 

P. E. Bradley, V Committee. 
W. F. Brown. \ 



delivered iw Gerard Hal J, 1S38. 



Gentlemen Alumni of the University : — 

The pious Pilgrim who wanders many 
thousand miles to visit the Holy Land, feels, as he treads 
the hallowed ground, invigorated and refreshed in his 
Christian warfare. 

The voluntary exile from his native home, who ranges 
o'er the world in pursuit of its happiness, its honors, or 
its riches, revisits with gladsome heart the place where 
' : Once in life ; s gay spring he used to roam. 7 ' 

The Alumni of our Alma Mater, with kindred sym- 
pathies, have come hither on this joyous anniversary. — 
They have come to rekindle at her altar their early at- 
tachments, the flame of sacred friendship. To catch fresh 
inspiration of that spirit which once glowed in their bo- 
soms, when, amidst these peaceful retreats, unshackled 
by the cares, and un vexed by the duplicity of the world, 
they contended in the noble strife of generous emulation. 

Our Classic Jubilee, is indeed, full of sublime attrac- 
tions. The sober affections of the aged, the ardent hearts 
of the young, and the thrice welcome plaudits of the soft- 
er sex, without whose inspiring influence, fancy languish- 
es, and genius dies, have all come up to this Temple of 
science, to pay their homage at her shrine, and to reward 
with their presence and their smiles her youthful votaries. 

When we contemplate the scenes which surround 
us, the edifices erected, the Professorships established, the 
standard of classical instruction and of intellectual philo- 
sophy now prevailing in our University, and revert to the 



6. 

early period of her history, our minds are filled with 
wonder at her advancement. We have seen her strug- 
gling for existence, against the false imputations and un- 
just prejudices of the public, of her being a sectarian 
Seminary, a nursery for the sons of the wealthy alone. — 
We have seen her languishing under pecuniary embar- 
rassments — her energies paralyzed by a load of debt, and 
her rightful guardians and protectors abandoning her to 
swift destruction. And we have seen her Trustees nak- 
ed fiduciaries, unmoved by interest, unarmed by power, 
and unclothed with patronage, sustaining her with un- 
flinching steadiness. We have seen them disencumber- 
ing her of her embarrassments, animating her hopes, and 
under the most discouraging circumstances, and with the 
most precarious means, placing her beyond the reach of 
her unnnatural enemies ; investing her with liberal en- 
dowments, and offering gratuitously the waters of her 
Pierian fountain, to all who will come and drink.* 

The genius of this mighty republic, which has urg- 
ed our country on, with the eagle's flight in the race of 
nations, has likewise kept her sacred vigils here. We see 
our Alma Mater keeping pace with the progress of science 
and literature ; and from the humble pretensions of a 
grammar school, elevated and dignified to the rank of the 
most distinguished seminaries of the Land. 

In this proud retrospect of the past, and these bright 
anticipations of her future destiny, still, our hearts are 
here rilled with mournful contemplations of the utter mu- 



*By an Ordinance of the Board of Trustees: "Any na- 
tive of the State, desirous of prosecuting his studies in the Uni- 
versity, who shall furnish satisfactory evidence of good talents, 
studious habits and exemplary morals, and who shall be unable 
to defray the expense of tuition and room rent, may at the dis- 
cretion of the Faculty, be admitted to all the recitations of the 
Classes, free of any demand therefor." 



7. 

tability of all things. We look around on this sequester- 
ed spot, and recognize the same venerable oaks, under 
whose umbrageous foliage we have so oft reclined. We 
walk abroad upon the hills ; revisit our former haunts and 
retrace the inscription we have rudely carved, on some 
ancient beach, or listen to the murmurings of the same 
stream, along whose quiet banks we have so often stray- 
ed, and recall our golden visions and romantic dreams ; 
but, where are our companions ? Where the wild laugh 
that used to re-echo through these solitudes ? Where 
that kind look, that gentle spirit, that kindred soul, which 
won our confidence and love ? 

"Alas ! we miss him on the accustomed hill, 
Along the heath and near his favorite tree 
We look in vain, nor yet beside the rill 
Nor up the lawn, nor at the wood is he." 

Here too, as with lingering step we pace these Halls, 
we meet, in imagination, at every pass, the genius of this 
place. But 'tis fancy's interview. 

Where is now that venerable form, that dignified 
brow, that parental voice, that once pervaded this whole 
community? He, who in early life came into the Insti- 
tution, nourished her infancy, invigorated her manhood, 
and who adhered to her with unfaultering tenderness and 
fidelity, in the darkest hour of her penury and affliction? 
Where is now that great Apostle, who illuminated the 
sacred fires of science, and adorned her beauties ? — ■ 
Where the revered and faithful instructer, whose zealous 
and untiring care it was, to instil into our minds the wis- 
dom of this world, and to teach us the way to Heaven ? 
The nothingness of this world's greatness, points to yon- 
der monument, beneath whose humble piles his venera- 
ted bones repose. Go there, and learn from the distinc- 



live lines, of the character of Joseph Caldwell ; to 
imitate his energy, his quickness of decision, his prompti. 
tude in action, his perseverance in duty, his devoted pa- 
triotism, and exalted piety. 

Thither let us all repair and bedew his ashes with 
the tear of affection. Green be the sod and unfading its 
verdure, that rests upon that consecrated spot : 
" Si quid ad famam valent 
Mens omnigense doctrmae capax 
Variis artibus ingenuis valde ornata 
Animus-que pius, liberalis, benignus, 
Nee non vita Uteris provehendis confecta 
Et laboribus assiduis in commodum publicum 
Mortui baud cito delebitur memoria." 
You, into whose laps the treasures of knowledge 
have been poured, and who have gone forth into the busy 
walks of life, stand, before God and posterity, in a post of 
high responsibility to your country. She needs the aid 
of enlightened patriotism. Guard well her honor. 

The loss of it, is the sure precursor to her destruction. 
Look at the history of other republics. Behold the once 
proud fabric of the Roman empire. Once the acknowl- 
edged mistress of the world, in arts, and genius, and arms, 
Rome is now an inferior city, known only by the solemn 
ruins of its ancient splendor. 

Where is now her glory ? her civilians, her philoso- 
phers, her military heroes ? Departed ; gone forever.— 
The intrepid virtue of that Republic, sunk into the timid 
slavishness of despotism. Her character gone, her national 
pride subdued, vandalism soon desolated her classic fields. 
Let us take instruction from her example, and be wise 
without suffering the ills of her experience. Extend over 
our people the shield of an honorable national character, 
and they will confide in and respect the government. — 



9. 

Teach them that the ejaculation " I am an American cit- 
izen," covers them with honor, and encircles them fys with 
panoply throughout the world, and they will be ready to 
rush to her rescue and defence against assaults from with- 
out, and the corruptions of demagogues and ambitious 
leaders within. I charge you, as you value your coun- 
try's glory and national existence, strive to check her 
spirit of avarice and thirst for plunder. The restless spi- 
rit of our people is bent alone on wealth. The vast re- 
gions of our unexplored territory invite cupidity. Where 
do you rind a man who regards himself as permanently 
settled ? How few do you see occupying the homes and 
places of their fathers. Seduced by this passion, falsely 
called enterprize, you behold, on all sides, neighborhoods 
and families dispersed, the parental roof abandoned by 
our offspring ere they arrive at maturity ; men cutting 
loose the tenderest associations ; quitting the houses they 
have built, the trees which they have planted, the fields 
which have nourished them, and which contain the ashes 
of their, forefathers. These habits may impart vigor and 
boldness to the character of our people, but they are not 
calculated to give stability to public virtue. 

When wealth comes to be regarded as the chief good, 
and virtuous poverty to be despised, the moral sense of the 
community is infected, and they soon become the prey of 
their own licentiousness and vice. What but this thirst 
for plunder and contempt of national character, impels 
our government in her Indian policy ? Why are these poor 
houseless savages hunted down like wild beasts, butcher- 
ed in their hammocks, or driven by the unrighteous arm 
of power from their home and their country? Com- 
pelled to submit to arbitrary stipulations, falsely called 
treaties, on the one hand, and on the other, betrayed and 

2 



10. 

kidnapped by violations of the nation's flag. See their 
Osceolas, too proud to submit, too brave to be conquered, 
entrapped by the perfidious display of a Flag of Truce, 
and doomed to languish and die ; not in chivalrous strife, 
with steel to steel, but the tardy and ignominious death of 
captive slaves. Who will not blush when he dispassion- 
ately reads this dark page of his country's degradation. — 
Who would not see the lagoons and morasses and swamps 
of the Seminoles, struck from creation's map, rather than 
behold the " star spangled banner" our national segis, 
thus tarnished and desecrated ? And why all this ? Be- 
cause the white man wants their land. Look to the 
Cherokees. For many years the benevolent policy of this 
government, pursuing the suggestions of our illustrious 
Washington, was employed in the laudable and pious 
task of civilizing these savages. Implements of husbandry 
and of the mechanic arts were furnished them ; schools 
established, and the blessings of christian light and truth 
patronized and sent to them : and now, amidst the suc- 
cessful tide of these experiments, their institutions are to 
be broken up, their fields and altars sacked, the cup of 
civilization, as soon as tasted, snatched from their lips, 
and they doomed to lapse again into hordes of wandering 
barbarians : 

« * * * * The shrill trump, 
" The spirit stirring drum, the ear piercing fife, 
" The pride, pomp and circumstance of glorious war" 
have lately burst upon the astonished head of our own 
quiet State. Yes : Even old North Carolina snuffs the 
tainted breeze. And although living with this people in 
unbroken amity, she, too, is called upon by the General 
Government to pollute her hands with this unhallowed 
work of robbery and murder. They have long lived with- 
in our borders, unfelt and unseen. Our citizens, east of 



11. 

the Alleghany, barely knew, until recently, that we even 
possessed such a population. 

One of their chiefs, being lately asked by the humane 
and gallant officer of our army, charged with the execu- 
tion of this order, whether they intended to resist their 
removal, replied : " We shall interpose no barrier. We 
will shed not one drop of blood. But not a Cherokee will 
go unless tied and dragged by cords and chains." What 
a spectacle do we exhibit to the civilized world 7 A great 
and powerful nation ; the boasted asylum of the persecu- 
ted and distressed, the nursing mother of law and of 
equal rights, pouring out her treasures and her armies, 
to expatriate this poor remnant of the children of the forest. 

And for what ? Because we want their land. 

Well may they swear eternal vengeance ; and even 
the stones of their deserted wigwams rise and mutiny. — 
'Tis a national sin ; a stain upon our country's honor. 

The Almighty possesses no attribute that can take part 
with us in such a controversy ; the Great Spirit, without 
whose knowledge not a sparrow falls to the ground, and 
who feeds the hungry ravens when they cry, will, it is to 
be feared, avenge the wrongs of these oppressed people, and 
sooner or later, hurl his heaviest thunderbolts 

******* Against 

" The deep damnation of their taking off—" 

I make no allusion here to party politics. These 
remarks cannot be legitimately applied to either of the 
great political parties of this nation. They are not divi- 
ded by this question. 

Stand forth, then, my friends, and rebuke this spirit 
of avarice and rapine. 

Strive to preserve our national character ; to fill our 
councils with enlightened patriotism, and our public offi- 
ces with gentlemen. 



12. 

Despise the demagogue, whether he call himself 
democrat or federalist, whig or tory, conservative or loco 
foco. Let talent and virtue, and merit, be the passport to 
power and place and not boisterous huzzahs, in praise 
of some successful party Chief. 

Know that freedom is bliss, and that honor is strength. 
" What constitutes a State ? 
" Not high raised battlement or labored mound, 
" Thick wall or moated gate, 
" Not cities proud with spires of beauty crowned ; 
" Not bays and broad armed ports 
" Where laughing at the storm, rich navies ride j 
" Nor starred and spangled courts, 
" Where low-browed baseness wafts perfume to pride. 
" No— men— high minded men, 

" These constitute a State." 



Young Gentlemen of the Philanthropic and Di- 
alectic Societies: 

Were I a candidate for literary fame, seeking to se- 
cure a niche in her fair temple, I should have denied my- 
self the honor of this Address. 

Having entered at an early age, upon the busy and 
varied employments of an active life ; accustomed to the 
impromptu suggestions of the moment, without regard to 
the elegance of classic diction or set forms of speech, and 
having received a very short notice of your demand up- 
on me, duty and self-respect, would have compelled me 
to have retired from the task of appearing before this dig- 
nified and enlightened assembly. Regarding, however, 
the important relation which your Societies bear to the 
prosperity of the college, and as an humble member of 
the Board of Trustees, desirous of sustaining your regu- 



13. 

lations ; and fearing the want of time for preparation, 
might in like manner deter others, and your wishes be 
thus entirely frustrated, I determined at once to accept 
your invitation. I was impelled to this decision by a- 
nother reflection. From a long and intimate acquaint- 
ance with the character of the young men of this col- 
lege, I felt a consciousness that the humblest production 
would be sustained, when offered in obedience to your 
call ; and that I should find in your sympathetic and in- 
genuous bosoms, a generous glow of satisfaction, even 
with the imperfections and poverty of the effort. 

The history of the Institutions under whose auspi- 
ces we are now assembled, is replete with lessons of prac- 
tical wisdom. 

In the year 1795 a voluntary association of the 
young men of the college was formed, under the name 
and style of the Dialectic Society, for the cultivation of 
science and the social virtues ; laws ordained ; a govern- 
ment in miniature established. In the year 1798, some of 
the members of this Society, not in a spirit of restless op- 
position and rebellion, but with the laudable motive of 
stimulating virtuous ambition in scholastic attainments, 
at the suggestion of the late venerable President Cald- 
well, then professor of mathematics, peaceably with- 
drew, and established the Philanthropic Society. 

For nearly half a century, these Institutions have 
pursued the even tenor of their way, having no other 
guarantee for their existence, than their own intrinsic ex- 
cellence. 

Claiming no perpetuity from chartered rights, un- 
protected by the laws, they have lived and flourished in 
the unsophisticated virtue of their members. 

While the thousand associations of the day, have dis- 



14. 

solved and passed off with the ephemeral ebullitions that, 
gave them birth ; while within the period of your exist- 
ence, republics, kingdoms, and empires have arisen, and 
in the mighty mutations of human affairs, are now known 
only as things that have been — your Societies stand as 
a great beacon light, teaching by that living motto, em- 
blazoned on their escutcheons, that human Institutions 
can only be stable, when fixed upon the immutable basis 
of virtue. Amid the revolutions that distract the world, 
let the spirit of faction and of mad ambition, stand re- 
buked at the majestic example of your constancy and love 
of order. Let the genius of emulation, as she wends her 
toilsome way up the the rugged steeps of fame, take fresh 
energy and courage, at the contemplation of the high 
achievements secured by steady perseverance. 

Little did the framers of your constitutions suppose, 
when they were penning those instruments, that they 
were giving to the deeds the impress of immortality, and 
registering their names for posterity, high as the founders 
of a race : little did they think, that the few old school 
books and cheap novels, and odd volumes of history, 
which, first were cast into common stock, aud which, e- 
ven within my rememberance, were kept in a few old 
trunks, was the nucleus, around which would arise those 
magnificent collections. Libraries, which regarded for 
the costliness of their materials, for the range and taste 
and variety of their selection, or the splendid drapery of 
their exterior, need not blush at a comparison with any in 
our country. Read in the sympathetic countenances of 
many here, the feelings of exultation, with which their bo- 
soms glow, when, after a long absence they come back to 
your halls, and witness your advancement. Long may 
your Societies flourish, the nursery of science and know- 



15. 

ledge, and of the kind affections and sympathies of life ; 
the patrons of social order and decorum ; the cradle of 
high-souled honor ; the scourge of indolence ; the bane 
of selfishness, and meanness. 

Your Societies, young Gentlemen, are identified with 
this University. They have become great arteries in the 
system, indispensable to its vitality. Without your active 
co-operation, the laws of the college are impotent, and 
nugatory. The dread of your displeasure carries more 
terror than all the majesty of the laws and the authority 
of the Faculty and Trustees combined ; you are emphat- 
ically an "imperium in imperio ;" "a power behind the 
throne greater than the throne itself." There is not an 
individual in this assembly, acquainted with this place, 
who does not know that what I say is true. Occupying 
then, as you do, this high ground ; in the name of the 
Trustees and Faculty of the University, I invoke your 
powerful aid, in sustaining its discipline, in encouraging 
industry and good manners, and in suppressing vice. 

Gentlemen of the Senior Class : 

The present is the most interesting period of 
your lives. You are about to separate from each other, 
after a close union of four years, to mingle in the wide 
world before you, and to leave forever those Academic re- 
treats, which must be consecrated by so many affecting re- 
collections. 

Standing on the threshold of manhood, ready to 
launch forth on the ocean of life, and fondly dreaming 
each wind and star your friend, it is fit that you should 
pause, and arm yourselves against her tempestuous bil- 
lows, and the seductive serenity of her surface ; — -to pro- 
vide yourselves with charts for this perilous voyage, and 



16. 

to keep an eye steadfast on those great lights, set up to 
conduct and save the mariner from her shoals and whirl- 
pools. 

At such a crisis, when you are about to cast away 
the pillars on which your dependant lives have leaned, 
and to assume the responsibility of your own destiny, I 
will not flatter you by the vain illusion that the eyes of 
the world are upon you and rejoicing to see you 

Climb 
The steep where Fame's proud temple shines afar." 

Nor will I damp the ardor of your course, by pour- 
traying the world as full of fraud and treachery, by teach- 
ing you that friendship is but an empty name, and besetting 
your path with the apprehension of assassins. It is not 
my purpose to invite your attention to any theme drawn 
from the depths of abstraction, demanding for its illustra- 
tion the resources of learning, or for its embellishment, 
the inspiration of poetry. But surrounded as you are, 
on the one hand, by friends, who. full of anxiety, are con- 
gratulating you on your entrance upon this great theatre, 
and on the other, by associates, who, with heavy hearts 
are bidding you an affectionate adieu ; suffer me to avail 
myself of the tender sensibility which such a moment a- 
wakens, to impress upon your hearts the value of filial 
piety. To you, the topic may be trite and common. — 
To your assiduity in your studies, submission to authori- 
ty, and gentlemanly intercourse, the President and Facul- 
ty of the college bear ample testimony, and the pos- 
session of these virtues is a faithful presage of your hav- 
ing fulfilled these high behests. Placing it, however, at 
the head of the social duties, and regarding, as I do, the 
value of its holy influence on our lives and actions, the 
subject cannot, in my estimation, be too often pressed up- 
on the memory of the young. 



17. 

The contemplation of this subject arises irresistibly 
on an occasion like the present. 

It is impossible to look upon this assembly of young 
men, collected here, from various quarters of our coun- 
try, to think of the purpose for which you have been thus 
assembled, and the different circumstances under which 
you have come together, without bestowing a thought on 
those dear friends you have left behind. When your 
condition, young gentlemen, is contrasted with that of 
the thousands of the youth around you, who, chilled by 
penury, or given up by parental abandonment to sloth 
and indolence, have never turned their faces towards the 
goal whither you are aiming, and are doomed to perish y 
like the beasts around them ; when we regard your fa- 
vored position in life, the facilities that have been here af- 
forded you, of elevating your future destiny, of identify- 
ing yourselves with your country's glory, and of learn- 
ing the way to God, how should your bosoms burn with 
gratitude and love for the authors of such signal privi- 
leges. 

The kindness and solicitude of your parents, present 
to you the most powerful incentives to your future exer- 
tion. With what tenderness have they administered to 
your wants in helpless infancy — with what patience borne 
your indiscretions in wayward childhood — with what 
anxiety watched your steps in erring youth. No care has 
been too severe, no self-denial too painful, no sacrifices too 
great which would contribute to your felicity. To you 
the meridian of life has been constantly devoted ; on you 
their treasures expended. Treasures ! There may be 
some, whose collegiate course has been sustained by the 
daily toil of a parent's own hand : Aye ; some perhaps 
from the scanty savings of a widowed mother ! A mo- 

3 



18. 

ther encountering the chilling ills of penury, shut out, 
voluntarily, from the enjoyments of social life ; herself 
the tenant of a garret, that her narrow income might 
meet the expenses of your education here. For all this 
affection and kindness and toil, the only reward they ex- 
pect, the only requital they ask, is, that when you enter 
upon the world you will act worthy of yourselves, and 
not dishonor them. And shall this requital be denied 
them ? Will you, by your folly disturb the tranquility 
of age, rob declining life of its few remaining pleasures, 
and snatch away from the hands of your doting parents 
the last cup of earthly consolation ? The chord that vi- 
brates from your generous hearts yields, I feel assured, the 
ready response. 

You will never know, till the bitterness of ingratitude 
shall teach you, the extent of your duties towards them, 
nor learn the depth of the abiding, unchanging affection 
which they bear towards you. Neither loss of character, 
nor abandoned life, nor even black ingratitude itself can 
eradicate this feeling from the parent's bosom. What 
beautiful illustrations of this truth are furnished in the 
Holy Scriptures. That volume, which, in the language 
of the greatest philosopher and jurist that ever lived, 
contains "more true sublimity, more exquisite beauty, 
more pure morality, more important history, and finer 
strains both of poetry and eloquence, than can be collected 
from all other Books, in whatever age or language they 
may have been composed." 

Let us pause and contemplate its sublime pages, in 
the history of one of the Jewish Princes. 

He was a tall and comely youth. Ave are told, and 
his father loved him exceedingly. 

Heir of the throne of Israel, reared in the lap of luxu- 



10. 

ry and ease, all the wishes of his heart were indulged with 
alacrity by his Royal Father, and his aberrations covered 
by the mantle of affection. When urged by the direful 
spirit of malice and revenge, he becomes the murderer of 
his brother, and is compelled to flee his country, the of- 
fended majesty of the laws is made to yield to the demands 
of parental tenderness, and the wandering exile is brought 
back and restored to his father's confidence and protection. 
Sullied by the corruptions of his own heart, and stimula- 
ted by wicked counsellors and corrupt associates, this atro- 
cious youth advances from one degree of enormity to 
another, till, by the blandishments of flattery and the se- 
ductive wiles of intrigue, he corrupts the fealty of his 
father's subjects, and plots a deep and dark conspiracy to 
rob him of his throne and kingdom. Impatient of the tar- 
dy development of his treason and rebellion, fired with 
the lust of rioting unchecked in the voluptuousness of the 
palace, he approves the horrible counsel of a confederate, 
and raises his parricidal arm to imbue it in his father's 
blood. A king, the greatest monarch of the earth, vene- 
rable for his years and victories, sacred in his character, 
both for piety and prophecy, renowned for prowess and 
revered for wisdom, is reduced to the condition of a fu- 
gitive — to a sudden and extreme necessity of flying for his 
life from the presence of his own son ! With a heavy heart, 
and a covered head, and a weeping eye, and bare feet, 
David, we are told, went away from Jerusalem ; driven 
by the insurrection of his own son from his house and 
from his throne. Yet when the victorious hosts of Israel 
were issuing from their gates, to rescue their great leader 
from such unnatural peril, and to blast the machinations 
of this ruthless Bandit, the illustrious Patriarch remem- 
bers that he is his son. Regarding him with unbroken 



20. 

affection, and apologizing for his crimes as the wayward 
vagaries of youth, he charges his captains that "they deal 
gently with the young man for his sake" And when 
arrested in his traitorous warfare by the vengeance of the 
A] mighty, and suddenly overwhelmed in awful destruc- 
tion, this incestuous murderer and parricide is found sus- 
pended between the heavens and the earth, in token of his 
being an unfit inhabitant of either ; and when the intelli- 
gence of his death is announced : instead of exulting in 
his own rescue and in his restoration to his estates and 
crown, the father is only overwhelmed with still deeper 
affliction in his bereavement of a child. Forgetting the 
wrongs and insults that had been heaped upon him, re- 
gardless of his own existence and strangled with grief, in 
the plenitude of a heart bursting with the pangs of paren- 
tal anguish, he exclaims, in the resistless eloquence of wo : 

" Oh my son Absalom, my son, my son Absalom, 

" Would to God I had died for thee ! 

" Oh Absalom, my son, my son ! I" 

The Almighty regards with favorable eye the efforts 
of filial duty. The first promise in the Decalogue is to 
him that honoreth his father and mother. It is the primal 
bond of society which the world, depraved and corrupt as 
it may be, respects with deferential homage. 

Who is there that does not admire the filial love of 
the great Epaminondas, who declared that the greatest 
pleasure which the renowned victory of Leuctra had af- 
forded him, consisted in the reflection that his aged parents 
had lived to rejoice in his fortune ? It was a noble spec- 
tacle, amidst the flames that were consuming Troy, and 
while the eager multitude were intent only on rescuing 
their paltry treasure, to see the dutiful Eneas bearing en 



21. 

his shoulder the venerable Anchises, his aged father, to a 
place of safety, 

We can scarcely contemplate a sublimer spectacle 
than that of a virtuous youth urged on in his struggle for 
knowledge, not only by the love of science and by a sense 
of its importance, but burning with the holy purpose of 
making, by his mental triumphs, a father's heart beat 
with delight^ and a mother's breast glow with rapture ; 
sacrificing, with manly energy, the customary follies of 
his age, yielding his soul to the effort, and, like a suc- 
cessful competitor in a mighty race, pressing onward to 
the goal of honors, fame, and wealth. If the bosom of a 
parent ever burn with joy, it is in witnessing the efforts 
of such a son. 

If when contemplating the possibility of his own pre- 
mature dismissal from the world, his soul can advert with 
comfort to any anchor for the shattered vessel which he 
leaves behind, it is when revolving in the recesses of his 
burdened mind the prospects and fortunes of his bereaved 
iamily, he augurs from the energy, the decision, the dili- 
gence, the character of a son, that his wife and children 
will yet have one around whom they may cling with 
hope ; one arm to stay them in distress ; one pillar to 
support them ; one shield to ward from them the perils of 
desolate widowhood and of orphan helplessness. 

Take, then, young geRtlemen, a retrospect of your 
past lives ; and when, from the giddy thoughtlessness of 
youth, your consciences shall reproach and chide you 
with neglect and disobedience, hasten to ask forgiveness, 
and renew your vows of veneration and fidelity. 

And be assured, my dear young friends, that when 
the progress of time or the casualties of life, or the inva- 
sions of disease shall bring on that painful moment in 



22. 

which you are to take a last look of the parent who has 
watched and worked for you, the remembrance of your 
efforts to gratify him, will send through your hearts a 
thrill of satisfaction, which monarchs on a throne might 
envy. 



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